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Nalates Urriah

VR Matrix Disassociation from Real Life

Start thinking about whether you REALLY can take the Blue pill or life is force feeding us the red one. Hamlet is pointing to an article in Rock Paper Shotgun titled: A Matrix Moment With The Vive.

“Last night…”

The article is about the disassociation a Vive (VR Headset) user, Philippa Warr, feels after taking the headset off. He obviously hasn’t heard the warning coming from several sources about possible negative side effects from using 3D anything.

I wrote about the Samsung warning they include with their 3D devices, at least in late 2012. See: Is 3D Safe for Kids. They are talking about a 3D depth perception problem. Phillippa is relating a different but similar problem.

With 3D imaging we still use a flat 2D surface. Everything in the two images is the same distance away from our eyes. The feedback the brain gets about distance from our eyes adjusting focus at different depths is missing. Current information from studies show it only takes minutes for the brain to adjust/adapt to changed visual input.

Think about how long it takes you to adapt to a new furniture arrangement, especially if you painfully stub your toe. It’s like instant brain change. Phillippa ran into the human adaptive process learning it can be triggered/trained by the VR experience. Was he experiencing a psychological change, like a stubbed toe induces, or a depth perception problem? It’s hard to tell from his account and knowledge level.

What we do know is there was a change.

I suspect we will start hearing about more issues as more people start using VR Headsets. In 2013 I pointed out some of the liability issues likely to come up. See: More Second Life Oculus Rift – toward the end.